


This Familiar Place

by angelacaduca (kallistei)



Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-10-14
Updated: 2008-10-14
Packaged: 2018-01-21 19:44:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1561835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kallistei/pseuds/angelacaduca
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU. 'The last thing Yoochun sees is the door slipping shut, the reflection of his own face in the glass falling towards him; then he knows nothing.'</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Familiar Place

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rana Eros (ranalore)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ranalore/gifts).



> For [](http://ranalore.livejournal.com/profile)[**ranalore**](http://ranalore.livejournal.com/)'s Epic Fail AU challenge. Many thanks to [](http://ranalore.livejournal.com/profile)[**ranalore**](http://ranalore.livejournal.com/), [](http://sleepish.livejournal.com/profile)[**sleepish**](http://sleepish.livejournal.com/) and [](http://jumoon.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://jumoon.livejournal.com/)**jumoon** for audiencing and betaing in various degrees.

The cryochamber is cold – too cold for thought, hope, memory, too cold even for dreams to keep you occupied while you sleep away the years. The last thing Yoochun sees is the door slipping shut, the reflection of his own face in the glass falling towards him; then he knows nothing.

When he comes back to himself, warmth leeching at last into the ends of his fingers and the tip of his nose, the first thing he registers is voices. Too quiet, Yoochun thinks somewhere beneath full consciousness. He shouldn't be able to hear speaking voices so easily over the hum of machinery that ought to be filling the room. Yoochun persuades his eyes to open eventually, blinking against the sprinkling of frost caught in his eyelashes, and sees that the door to the cryochamber is open and there are two men in front of him. They're wearing near-identical uniforms, but the taller one has an array of pens and gadgetry about his person – scientist, in any language, even if Yoochun doesn't recognise half the gadgets. The other one has a gun in his hands and another in a holster at his side, carries himself ready to use either – equally obviously, soldier. They're discussing something with a fair amount of urgency, but Yoochun can't quite make out the topic, the shape of their words falling strange on his ears.

Yoochun tries to speak. Nothing comes out, but he manages to half-raise an arm, and the movement draws their attention. "This one's awake!" the one Yoochun's pegged 'scientist' says, louder than before, and the soldier swings his gun in a token attempt to cover Yoochun, although from his expression he doesn't really think Yoochun's a threat. Yoochun's just relieved he can understand them – they're speaking galaxy Standard after all, though the vowels are longer than Yoochun's used to and their consonants are strangely clipped, chopping the words into unfamiliar syllables Yoochun needs to think about to make sense of. "What's your name?"

Yoochun has to clear his throat twice before he can speak. "Yoochun," he croaks out at last. There are things he needs to ask, things he should probably be doing, but he can't even make his tongue function properly right now.

"All right, Yoochun," soldier says. "Let's get you out of there." They each take one of Yoochun's arms, pull him out more gently than Yoochun had expected. Out of the corner of his eye, Yoochun catches – no other light above any chambers, no other open doors. That's not right. There were a thousand other people in this room, his friends and family among them, a thousand other blinking lights that should've been keeping them alive, keeping them with him.

He can't get together enough thought to ask, can't even get his legs to support his weight without wobbling. "Hey, careful!" scientist says, catching at Yoochun's elbow as he lists to one side suddenly, almost falling.

"You?" Yoochun asks. There'd been more to that sentence in his mind, but the question seems to be understood anyway.

"I'm Yunho," scientist says, "and that's Jaejoong. We're part of an Estrian exploratory team."

Yoochun has no idea what 'Estrian' even is – state, moon, planet, empire? "Long?" he tries, single words about all he can manage with his voice scratchy and hoarse from disuse.

"How long you've been in there?" Yunho asks. Soldier – Jaejoong – seems to be more occupied with looking around the room than answering Yoochun's questions. Yoochun nods, and Yunho lets go of him to poke at his hand screen. "Near as we can make out, 532 years Standard. And some change."

Yoochun stares. The system was never designed for that long – a century, they'd been told. Maybe an extra fifty years if they were really lucky. If help hadn't come by then, it would be too late for them. The question that's been scratching at the back of his mind claws its way to the front.

"Others?" he asks. He can't keep the desperation out of his voice when he says, "Family?"

This gets Jaejoong's attention at last. There's sympathy in his voice when he replies. "Sorry," he says. "So far... we haven't. Uh, we haven't been able to wake anyone else up. The system-" he trails off, and Yoochun's heart pounds in his ears in the sudden restoration of silence. "We were barely in time for you," Jaejoong finishes at last.

Yoochun knows what that means – father, mother, Yoohwan, Jihyun - that and the quiet, the lack of any other activity in the room. He's the only one left. His knees give way at the knowledge; this time it's Jaejoong who catches him, who goes to his knees with Yoochun under their combined weight and holds Yoochun as he shakes with the realisation that he's all alone, five hundred and more years from everything he knows.

\--

Changmin and Junsu have been back in the ship for almost forty minutes, and Junsu's starting to get antsy at the lack of word from Jaejoong and Yunho. Changmin looks up from his analysis of the latest data and catches Junsu running his hands over the controls, flicking at engines, weapons, scanners, navigation over and over in rapid succession. "Stop that," Changmin says. "I'm sure they're fine, and if you have to fidget could you please pace or do something else that might not get us both blown up by accident?"

"I'm not going to explode us, Changmin," Junsu says, but he takes his hands off the controls anyway.

"You haven't yet. That doesn't mean you won't. I have faith in you." Changmin smiles, a hint of challenge. Junsu makes a face, trying to convey that he knows exactly what Changmin's trying, but he's going to play along anyway. He opens his mouth to answer except that just then a light flashes on, telling them that the airlock's been activated.

"See, they're-" Changmin stops abruptly and Junsu snaps to his feet as they both register that the status screen now shows three new dots, not two. There's someone else with Yunho and Jaejoong, and they'd given no warning that they were bringing company.

Junsu's sidearm is in his hand and he's almost at the door, Changmin just behind him, when the intercom chimes seconds later. "Hold your horses, Junsu," Jaejoong's voice says. "This one's a friend." There's a touch of strain in his voice, but not the tension to be expected when a mission goes bad, and the two bare sentences concealed none of the codewords for hostage situations or anything else that requires more action from them. Junsu relaxes slightly, holsters his gun but doesn't snap the catch closed again. Something must have happened for them to be late reporting in, and they've managed to find a living thing - a friend even - on this godforsaken rock where they'd only expected to find deserted ruins.

"Shall we go and see what they've brought home?" Changmin asks at his shoulder, familiar words in a familiar voice. Junsu breathes a bit more easily still and answers with a slap at the door controls.

\--

This time, Yoochun wakes up from a more normal sleep, blinking up against the brightness of the overhead lights before a voice saying, "Hey," draws his attention. It's Jaejoong, sitting on a chair by the bed Yoochun's lying on.

"Hi," Yoochun replies, then frowns, taking in his surroundings. It looks like a medbay of some kind, though smaller and more compact than any he's ever seen. "Where am I?"

"On our ship," Jaejoong tells him. "Sorry about the lack of warning, but you kind of passed out and we were running late. You haven't been out long though, just a couple of hours." Yoochun suspects that the fact that nothing else on-planet was working might have had a part to play in their decision, but he appreciates Jaejoong's attempt at tact in not mentioning it.

Yoochun looks away to take a closer survey of the room - bright, a lot of semi-arcane machinery in a small space. When he looks back, Jaejoong's got a hand on the pin at his collar. "Guys, he's awake again," he says into it.

"On my way," says a voice Yoochun doesn't recognise.

"That's Changmin," Jaejoong explains in response to Yoochun's questioning look. "The other scientist-type in our little group of lunatics. And you'll probably meet Junsu soon too."

The door swooshes open just then, and two more people walk in. "Speak of the devil," Jaejoong says. Yoochun assumes that the tall one who makes a beeline for the monitors at the foot of his bed must be Changmin, which leaves the short one with the gun as Junsu.

"You know." The tall one's voice is the one he'd heard over the intercom minutes before. "You're really very healthy. Especially for someone who's been in cryostasis for over half a millennium."

Yoochun blinks and turns to Jaejoong. "Is he always this... straightforward?" he asks, carefully not thinking about the other implications of Changmin's statement - 500 years, family, planet, nothing but the clothes he woke up in and this group of strangers.

Jaejoong looks over at Changmin. "That's our Changmin for you," he replies, and there's clear affection in his eyes, affection obviously returned in Changmin's resigned sigh and mutter of, "I get no appreciation around here."

It's that little exchange that breaks Yoochun, so similar to ones he'd had before and might never know again. He forgets all about the other pair of eyes on him until a new voice says, "Changmin! Now you've made him cry."

Yoochun hadn't even realised. He sniffs violently, dashing at the tears in his eyes with a hand that's finally working as he wants it to. "Not." He sniffs harder, chokes words out past the lump in his throat. "Not his fault." He knows who - or what - is to blame for this, but right now that doesn't help him at all.

Jaejoong's hand is on his shoulder, an attempt at comfort, but Yoochun shakes his head in a denial of even he can't tell what. A few more tears slip out, and a thumb wipes them away. Jaejoong again, Yoochun sees through blurry eyes. Someone else hands him a tissue and Yoochun blows his nose, furious at himself.

"Stupid," he mutters, mostly to himself. "This isn't going to help anything."

"Hey, no," Jaejoong says, patting at Yoochun's shoulder again, words that have no meaning except for the tone they're said in.

On his other side, Junsu's hand slides into his, and Yoochun hangs on, pathetically grateful for the human comfort they're offering to someone they've just met. "You're allowed to be sad," Junsu says, and the permission is all Yoochun needs to give in, crying himself clean.

\--

Three days after they pick Yoochun up, they make landfall on another planet in the system that also shows signs of life. While Yunho, Junsu and Changmin go to see what's out there, and maybe find something to supplement the onboard rations, Jaejoong finds himself on the ship, keeping Yoochun company. It's when they're in the galley, Jaejoong putting together lunch and showing Yoochun where things are, that Yoochun gives away the first piece of who he is.

"My mother used to make something like this," he says. Jaejoong's not even looking at him, occupied with unearthing a particular spice.

Jaejoong straightens up, turns around to face Yoochun. "Did she?" he asks, carefully, cautiously.

"Used to be one of my favourites," Yoochun runs his fingers over the edge of the counter, the chopping board, the pot handle.

Jaejoong feels on the edge of something, a moment just within reach. He doesn't know if his question is the right one, but he asks it anyway. "What happened, Yoochun?"

Yoochun shrugs, and even on such short acquaintance Jaejoong can see the tumble of emotions in that simple gesture, can read them behind Yoochun's eyes. "We don't - didn't - never knew what it was," Yoochun says at length. "We got reports from the outer planets first, about this thing. This alien, I guess. I don't even know if that's the right word. We didn't know anything about it, just that it would land and then everything would die." Yoochun's voice is distant, slow, as if he's telling someone else's story, barely remembered. Something about the story strikes a chord and Jaejoong makes a mental note to look into the archives later, to see what he can find out. Or ask Yunho or Changmin to.

Yoochun's speaking again, and Jaejoong refocuses his attention on him. "When it was done, weeks or months later, it would move on, to the next planet or moon along. Anything that had life. We... we sent ships out to ones it'd left, after the first few, after we saw that it didn't go backwards. We found survivors - for some reason, everyone in the medical cryo tanks survived. Just them. Maybe it thought they were already dead. We knew we didn't have enough ships to evacuate, not that could get far enough, so we got everyone away that we could, and for the rest. We came up with a stupid idea."

"The cryochambers," Jaejoong says. He wants to spare Yoochun - from what, he doesn't know, it's too late for keeping what happened away. Maybe he just wants to remind Yoochun that he's there. Yoochun has been getting quieter and quieter, and Jaejoong finds he's taken a few steps closer to Yoochun so he can make out the words.

"Yeah. We thought we could wait it out. Thought someone would get our message and come. But no-one did, until you. And we all died anyway."

Yoochun's eyes are full of tears, and Jaejoong can't help but reach out to him. This time, Yoochun doesn't fall into him, but he doesn't shrug him away either. "You're alive, Yoochun," Jaejoong says, as quiet as Yoochun had been. "You're still alive."

\--

Yoochun's not sure what to do with himself, doesn't know what to make of this crazy place he's found himself in. He tries to keep it from the others, because they've been nothing but kind to the stranger in their midst. Privacy's hard to find in a ship this small, though, means he has little space to brood and less to grieve. One of the others is almost always with him, and there's five centuries of news to catch up on, an unfamiliar ship to learn about. One thing he doesn't lack is occupation, even if it's not his own.

He snatches moments when and where he can, to remember his mother's face and his father's voice, the way Yoohwan smiled when he got home from school and how Jihyun laughed just before she got to blow something up. Every time he does, it gets easier to remember they're gone, easier to smile at the memory, instead of mourning the fact he'll never see them again. He just wishes he knew if he was supposed to feel that way.

\--

It's the middle of shipboard 'night', and Changmin is the only one in the forward cabin, keeping an eye on the monitors for impending crises while he taps away at his handscreen, when Yoochun walks in. Changmin turns slightly at the hiss of the door and the sound of footsteps, lifting a hand in greeting when he sees who it is.

"Hey," Yoochun says, walking up to stand next to his chair. Changmin sees his aborted reach towards the controls, the wistfulness in his glance over the displays. It's akin to, but not quite the same as the look Yoochun wears on the occasions he's mentioned his family during the handful of days they've known him.

"You fly?" Changmin asks. It's the least of the questions he has for Yoochun, but also, he thinks, the safest. Many things have an unsettling tendency to reduce Yoochun to tears, and that's not what Changmin wants.

Yoochun smiles, looking out at the expanse of stars before them, but Changmin gets the feeling that he's remembering an entirely different sky. "I'm-" Yoochun stops, corrects himself carefully. "-was a pilot," he says with a chuckle, a small, warm sound that Changmin's not heard out of him before. "Couldn't shoot my way out of a paper bag with a handgun. That was always Jihyun's department. But in a cockpit I could get you out of almost any trouble you cared to name."

Changmin decides he likes the little smile playing at the corners of Yoochun's mouth as he says it, wants to distract Yoochun before he remembers that there turned out to be one thing he hadn't been able to fly away from. Despite his curiosity, Changmin doesn't ask about the name Yoochun had dropped, sensing now's not the right time. "In or out of atmosphere?" he tries instead.

"Both. Started out with planes and worked up to the real outplanet fighters."

It's an unusual impulse, but Changmin doesn't resist it. "Want to try her out?" he asks, gesturing at the controls.

Yoochun stares at him. "Really?"

"I don't say things I don't mean," Changmin replies, and slides out of his chair. "All yours."

Yoochun hesitates a moment before he takes Changmin's place. His hands hover in the air of the control panel, not quite daring to touch yet. "It's all right," Changmin says with a smile. "The overrides won't let you kill us. There's a reason we don't need to bring a real pilot with us."

"The others won't mind?"

"No. And I'm pretty sure they're all asleep, or I'd warn them."

Yoochun looks at him a moment longer, coming to a decision, then settles his hands at the controls, muttering to himself as he figures out what does what before he changes anything. In that moment, he looks more carefree than Changmin's yet seen him, and Changmin rests a hand on the chair back and just watches.

\--

"Why are you taking me with you?" Yoochun asks suddenly. It seems completely out of the blue to Yunho, who'd been half-dozing, watching a movie at one end of the rec cabin while Yoochun flicked with seeming fascination through a book. Changmin's got an interest in history; the book's one of his, lent to Yoochun when he expressed a desire to find out what had happened during the long years he'd been in stasis.

Yunho looks across at Yoochun, but he's staring down at the table and Yunho can't read anything from that angle. "Well, we couldn't just leave you there," he replies, and hopes the 'to die like everyone else' isn't as clear to Yoochun as it is to him.

"So you just picked me up, like a stray pet you decided to keep?"

Yunho frowns, not liking the almost-accusing tone of the question. "Did you want us to leave you there? Or did you want to get somewhere sooner? We would have called the carrier for you, except that we're meeting it in a few weeks anyway." He doesn't know where this is coming from. They'd all thought Yoochun was coping remarkably well - well for someone who'd lost everything he'd ever known - and then all of a sudden, this.

"Maybe it would have been better if you'd left me. It's not as if there's much for me here." Yoochun's so quiet Yunho barely hears him, but the words are a revelation. This is something he knows, something that can be dealt with. Something they've all dealt with, in their time.

"You're not the first stray to be in this ship." Yunho uses Yoochun's own word, trying to get his attention. "I used to live in the city orphanages. A disease killed Jaejoong's entire village, and an Estrian exploratory mission picked him up when most of his planet was too afraid of the sickness to take in a stranger. Junsu and Changmin have their own stories, their own reasons for wanting to spend a year at a time out in space with no-one but each other for company. By necessity or choice, we're all strays here, Yoochun. The question is what you'll choose to do now."

"And what choices do I have now?" Yoochun still isn't looking at him, so Yunho crosses the room to sit beside him.

"More than you think, probably," he says, putting an arm over the back of the long sofa, just barely brushing against the back of Yoochun's head. "When we get to Estria, you'll see."

There's a long moment of silence before Yoochun relaxes back, saying "Okay," and Yunho sighs quietly with relief, hearing the beginnings of acceptance in his tone.

\--

After handing the control cabin over to Jaejoong, Junsu makes for the bunkroom, opens the door and almost walks into Yoochun, standing just inside. They do the awkward shuffle dance for a couple of seconds, until Yoochun laughs and turns aside to let Junsu pass. Junsu heads for his bunk, flops into it with an arm over his eyes while Yoochun grabs his boots from by the door and sits down on the nearest bed to lace them.

Junsu hears the stomp of boots on the floor, expects to hear the door open and close again behind Yoochun just after. Instead he hears, "Hey, Junsu?"

He debates not answering for a second, feigning sleep. He still doesn't know quite what to make of this stranger who's been kind of thrust upon them. Then again, as Jaejoong had pointed out, if he avoided him, that meant they'd always be strangers. He just wishes he knew whether he should get attached to this one or not in advance; he thinks it'd be too easy to want to keep him. "Yeah," Junsu says at last, turning on his side to look over at Yoochun.

"What's Estria like?"

Junsu sighs. "Ask a hard question, why don't you? It's... home. Different for everybody."

"Well, what's it to you, then?" Yoochun is staring at him as if, if he looks hard enough, he'll be able to look right through Junsu's skull to find the answer he's looking for. Under that gaze, Junsu can't feign relaxation and sits up, mirroring Yoochun across the way.

"It's amazing," Junsu says at last. "Full of people and things and... more than I ever imagined. Everything I never even knew I wanted until I got there." He waves a hand, trying to find the words to express what he feels for the place that gave him a home to return to.

Yoochun speaks before Junsu manages it. "It's OK. I think I see," he replies. "Thanks."

Junsu tilts his head, considering, matching Yoochun stare for stare. "Hmm," he says. "Maybe. When we get there, I'll take you out sometime. Show you what the city's really like." He casts a look around, the way he imagines a spy might when looking for eavesdroppers. "It's the best part of the whole planet, but don't tell anyone I said that, okay?"

"I think I'd like that," Yoochun replies, and smiles back. "And your secret's safe with me."

\--

The blare of the alarm shatters the afternoon quiet of the little ship. Yoochun casts one startled look at Junsu and Yunho before old instincts kick in and he's running for the door, just a step behind Junsu, hand automatically reaching for the earpiece he no longer wears.

They tumble through the doors, Junsu nudging Changmin aside to slip into the control chair, Changmin and Yunho taking places on either side of him, their hands flying over the scanners. Yoochun only has a moment to realise that the screen shows another ship, miles behind them yet, but labelled bright red as broadcasting no identifying signal, before the door opens once more to admit Jaejoong.

"Guns," Yunho says without turning around and Jaejoong slides behind Yoochun to his place. Yoochun hovers at the back of the cabin, no room for him in this moment where everyone has a place and a job.

"God," someone breathes, too low for Yoochun to identify the voice, as Yunho and Changmin's scanners do their work and start pouring out data.

Yoochun can't quite believe what the screens are telling him - both how much the scanners see, and what the ship behind them is. He remembers a conversation with Changmin, days ago that seem like months now. "She's not glamorous," Changmin had said of their ship, "and none of us are real pilots to fight her, but she's fast and we've got the best scanners they can provide us with. So if we see anything coming - and we usually do - we can run for the hills." He'd smiled. "Junsu hates it sometimes, but it suits me just fine."

"Just our luck," Changmin says now, shaking his head.

Yunho sighs. "Pirates, you think?"

"Can't see what else they'd be, all the way out here and armed like that. And they're fast too," Jaejoong replies. Yoochun turns to see firing solutions flicking on the screen beside him, considered and rejected in rapid succession. "We haven't got a chance in hell of outshooting them."

"Doesn't look like they've seen us yet," Junsu says. "They will soon, though. This is as fast as we go with the overrides, and they're gaining. And how did they get this close before we picked them up?"

"New shields," Changmin replies, highlighting something on the screen for him. "Look at that."

"Always something new." Jaejoong sounds almost petulant, and it's incongruously funny to Yoochun. He stifles a laugh as Jaejoong asks, "Can't we ever keep ahead on anything?"

Yunho's been tapping at buttons while the others speak. "We could still outrun them," he says, "but only if we had someone who could actually fly her without the overrides. They're too close and too fast for anything else."

Changmin clears his throat, casts a look behind him. Yoochun thinks he knows what he's going to say, finds his hands are shaking when Changmin says, "Well, actually, we do."

"You been taking flying lessons on the sly?" Junsu's found a smile from somewhere.

"I've got better things to do with my time, thank you. But Yoochun's a pilot. A real one. And he can fly her."

Most of the eyes in the room are on Yoochun now. "And where did he learn to do that?" Jaejoong asks, turning back to his screen.

"I said he could. You can thank me later."

Yoochun's slightly lost in the flurry of words, but when Yunho beckons him over, it's both invitation and order, impossible to mistake. "Can you do it?" Junsu asks when Yoochun's standing next to him.

"I already have, a couple of times."

Junsu's eyebrows raise at that, and behind them Jaejoong says, "I think we will be talking about this later."

"Not important now," Yunho says, his own fingers busy at his panel again, and Junsu nods, stands so Yoochun can take his place.

Yoochun's hands settle on the controls, familiar as if this ship is the one he's flown all his life. He's not shaking any more, though his stomach's trying to do crazy backflips. The overrides are easy enough to turn off. He's done it before, at midnight with only the sound of Changmin's breathing beside him. One by one, he flicks them off, Changmin silencing the alarms even before they sound. Yoochun kicks them into the higher acceleration now available, buying them a few more minutes to think as Yunho transfers a navigation plan from his screen to Yoochun's. "Can you do that?" Yunho asks.

Yoochun scans it - a burst of speed, a dive and twist that would tax the internal gravity as well as the engines, a sudden stop perilously close to a crash on the surface of the nearest planet just before the other ship's scanners ought to be able to catch that it was a landing and not a crash. On Yoochun's other side, Changmin's already working on the image they'll need to broadcast to complete the fiction. It could work. "Yes," Yoochun replies. "But you should probably hang on to something."

Out of the corner of his eye, Yoochun sees Junsu drop into a corner, brace himself into place. It's probably the best thing he could do, with no chair left for him. Yoochun nods to himself at the implied acceptance, looks at the plan once more, and flies like he's got nothing to lose, like there aren't four other lives trapped between his fingers and the controls. The others are silent, and Yoochun doesn't dare to turn and look at any of them, doesn't dare to take his eyes off the screens even for a second. But he can hear, can feel, and his breath catches when he realises that there's no doubt in that silence, just observation, if anything, confidence in him, their lives in his hands and they seem perfectly content to leave things that way; he puts the thought aside to examine later, if they survive to later.

Afterwards, as the other ship decides they're not worth breaching atmosphere to salvage, Yoochun breathes again. Somewhere behind him, Junsu is laughing, the purest expression of relief Yoochun's ever heard. "Oh, can we keep him?" Junsu asks to the room at large.

"I think that's his decision, and the commanders'," Yunho says, turning to look at Yoochun. "But I hope so." Yoochun nudges the ship into flight again, doesn't answer yet. He has time now, and choices, as Yunho had said, more than he thought he did.


End file.
